


Compatibility

by AndromedaPrime



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: M/M, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, Transformer Sparklings, past mechpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 14:17:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8449519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaPrime/pseuds/AndromedaPrime
Summary: The absences between Cybertron and Earth didn't make either mech's spark grow fonder. However, co-parenting their bitlet certainly did.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Over the past three years there's been asks for a follow-up to _Incompatible_ , so I finally got something together and decided to indulge those that asked :3c I also wanted to give these two assholes a very happy ending because, well, they deserve each other.

Soft clicking noises caught his attention, spurring him to remember that there was someone else in the little room he’d commandeered as a workshop. Wheeljack turned around and smiled at the sparkling in the playpen he’d constructed for her, batting his optics at her.

Athena tilted her helm to the side and made a flicking motion with her helm fins, something that Wheeljack had come to know meant that she was curious. It was her way of asking what he was doing. He chuckled and set his tools down, crossing to the other end of the room where she was. When he was halfway toward her, Athena chirped gaily and held her servos out, beaming. Her helm fins flicked back and forth rapidly.

“Yeah, I’d get tired and bored if I were in there too all the time, kiddo.” Wheeljack reached in and hoisted Athena into his arms, watching as she moved to find secure grip on his armor and blinked her optics at him expectantly. He laughed and planted a kiss to her helm crest before he walked back over to the table.

With one servo, he cleared off a space for her. She clambered out of his arms and sat patiently in the empty patch of table, looking at the tools strewn around the surface before her. In the same moment, he was seeing himself and Magnus.

“Interested in seein’ what your ol’ sire’s up to, huh?” Wheeljack grabbed a non-sharp tool he had been using and held it out to her, watching her optics look at it curiously before she took it into her little servos.

“Wanna know what I’m makin’? It’s for you, ‘thena.” The Wrecker chuckled and held up the metal rods he’d curved and soldered together to make a circular frame. “Needs a lot more work, but wanna guess what it is?”

Athena looked at the tool in her servos and then looked up at him, holding it out toward him and beeping inquisitively.

“Nah, don’t need that just now. Makin’ you a walker chair. Sunshine said it’ll help you start walkin’ around earlier, ‘nd I won’t have your carrier breathin’ down my spinal strut ‘nd jumpin’ at me if you fall, ‘cause this,” he shook the frame once, “will make sure you don’ fall.”

_Chirp!_

“Ah, I’m gonna need some more time to work on this, ‘thena. Can you be patient?”

The bitlet looked at him and flicked her helm fins, chirping and bouncing up and down where she sat.

“Nah, ‘course you can’t. Just like me.” Wheeljack planted another kiss to the top of her helm before he returned to his crafting and soldering, making sure when something hot or sharp was used, that it was turned away from both him and Athena.

The femmeling watched his every move intently, warbling and chirping every so often. The intent gaze, the concentration on her faceplates, the way her optics moved and tracked him as he bustled around the exterior of the table – it scared him how much of him and Magnus had been mixed into the perfect, tiny little being they called their daughter.

He wondered how she would walk once the walker was no longer a necessity. Would she walk with a swagger, inherited from him? Or would she walk with her spinal strut straight and staring straight ahead with those optics that mirrored his, as Magnus would no doubt teach her? Then he realized that if she started to walk like him, Magnus would throw a fit.

Not in front of her, obviously. He’d throw it at him.

Wheeljack chuckled to himself and proceeded to grab a thick sheet of metal and carve oblong holes into it, where Athena would put her legs through. She would need cushion; he grabbed many of the thick fabrics that the human kids had stitched together and brought him and measured them. Once he figured that they were safe enough for his bitlet, he attached the fabric to the seat, padding the edges so they didn’t ding and scratch at Athena’s legs and bottom once she would sit in it.

Quizzical warbles caught his attention again. He turned to look at the femme, who was holding circular discs in her little servos. It amazed him – last he remembered, she was a newspark barely able to hold one of his own fingers in her hands. And here she was, holding the thick wheels with no trouble at all.

“Yeah, those are gonna help you scoot ‘round, ‘thena.” Wheeljack looked at the seat and soldered it onto the circular frames he’d made. “Roll you everywhere you wanna get to so you don’t have to ask me or your carrier to carry you all the time.” Once that was completed, he draped more fabric over the upper ring he’d made, giving it more cushion for Athena.

“Sad fact of life, kiddo. We all get big and one solar cycle you’ll wake up, realizin’ that your carrier and I can’t carry you much anymore. But always remember,” he went and grabbed Athena off the table, kissing her on the closet helm fin and blowing raspberries despite her squeaks of protest, “that your carrier an’ I are gonna carry you eternally in our sparks.”

Athena chirped and papped her servos on his helm, giggling at the different tones of noise she could make by changing how hard she papped. Wheeljack took it in stride and plopped the bitlet down in the seat, making sure she fit and had more room to grow before he took her out and put her back in her playpen. She chirped insistently at him, flicking her helm fins.

“You’ll get outta there soon ‘thena. Just gotta do one last thing,” he winked at her as he grabbed the six wheels from the table and began inserting them into the bottom ring. “Your carrier owes me big time for this. Was complainin’ how he’s so tired after patrols and sometimes can’t even hold onto you. He was also frettin’ about you learning to walk. And so we got this goin’, huh?”

_Click!_

Wheeljack laughed and then fell quiet for a moment as he made sure that he put in all six of the wheels. His processor wandered a bit, as he thought of the other mech and wondered what the look on his faceplates would be once he saw Athena zooming around in the chair.

“I normally don’t spill my feelin’s out like this,” he began shaking the frame and testing how it held up, “but I’ll always be upfront with you, kiddo. You’re one of the best things that’s happened to me. And I know you’re one of the best things that’s happened to your carrier. He’s told me over again.”

Athena blinked her optics and warbled quietly, helm fins tilting towards him.

“Ah, I know you can’t really understand what I’m sayin’. You’re only half a stellar-cycle old, after all.” He stopped momentarily and looked at her, smiling. “But I think you can understand how I feel.”

He thought of Magnus. The mech had said that he wasn’t interested in pursuing a relationship with him when they had gotten to talking about it. Wheeljack was a lone-wolf type, enjoying his solitude a little more than the average bot would. Hearing Magnus tell him that he didn’t desire a relationship, however, had hurt him. It was a slight hurt, and he acknowledged it, but as he looked at the little femme they had created from a night of drunken stupidity…

He would never think of Athena as a mistake. And he didn’t want her to grow up feeling that way if her creators weren’t together.

And even if Magnus were steadfast in saying he didn’t want for them to have a relationship, he would be sure to tell her how much he admired her carrier.

“I love you, ‘thena. I’ll always remember hearin’ you cry for the first time, seein’ you open your optics. Was so happy you came out lookin’ just like your carrier, but I was even happier to see that you got my optics.” He smiled at her again and set the walker down, putting pressure on it and making sure it could withstand the weight. “Love you and your carrier.”

The femmeling warbled. Her fins flicked curiously.

“Curious ‘bout what? Hmm. Curious why I love your carrier?”

She flicked her fins again. He decided to take that as a yes. Wheeljack sighed and walked over to the playpen, leaning against the railing and looking at her. “He drives me nuts all the time, rules ‘nd regulations ‘nd all that slag. He’s got the largest stick up his aft, ‘nd I don’t know why I fell for him, but I did. Drives me nuts the way he’s such a rules abider an’ I love breakin’ ‘em, yet I fell for him.”

Athena tilted her helm to the side and then tried to stand up, using her servos to grab at the rail of the playpen to steady herself.

“’sides all that, I love your carrier. I’m in love with the way he’s such a good carrier to you. You’re his reason to get up in the mornin’ and his reason to smile, and he doesn’ have much of that lately.”

The femme managed to get herself standing, wobbling unsteadily on her legs. She blinked her optics at him and chirped.

“Yeah,” Wheeljack smiled at her. “And you’re one of my reasons to smile, bitlet.” He reached in and hoisted the little femme into his arms, cooing at her. She gave him a wide smile and then focused her attention on patting his helm.

He knew what she was looking for. She was used to being able to get a grip on Magnus’s helm crest when she was being carried by him, so it was odd to her that he didn’t have one she could wrap her servos around and yank at.

“Nothing there for you kid,” Wheeljack moved his helm and placed kisses on each of her servos, making her giggle. “As for you,” he kissed her cheekplate and blew raspberries, making her giggle even louder, “I love you because it’s hard not to love you. You’re the cutest, chubbiest lil’ bitlet that’s ever existed. You’re also half mine and half your carrier’s coding, so no matter if you wind up takin’ after me or your carrier in the end, you’re gonna be a smart one. Force to be reckoned with, I bet.”

Athena turned her bright, beautiful optics to him and chirped, curling into her sire’s frame and tucking her helm next to his. His audio receptors picked up the sound of her yawns.

“Borin’ you am I?” Wheeljack laughed and bounced her up and down in his arms. “Wake up, we got a chair to test out.” He kissed her again despite her mumbled protests and gently placed her down in the chair, taking great care to make sure her legs went through the holes he’d made for her. He thanked Primus when she was able to sit down comfortably.

Athena looked curiously at the chair and patted her hands down on the fabric that had been attached to it. She looked up and warbled inquisitively at her sire. The look on her faceplates was something akin to _What am I doing?_

“You’re standin’! With some help, yeah. Wanna try walkin’?”

The bitlet blinked at her sire, then looked back down to the chair.

“Know how to move your legs? I know you do,” Wheeljack chuckled. “You like to try walkin’ all over me when I’ve got you for the night cycle.” He thought back to the previous night, when he’d been woken by Athena trying to stand up on his chassis, only for her to flop down because her little legs still couldn’t hold her weight. “C’mon. Like this, bitlet.” Wheeljack casually walked a few paces around Athena in her little walker.

Her big optics looked at him, then she stared ahead. The white-armored mech saw a familiar sight cross her face, one of concentration, then she started moving her own legs. The bits of strength she had in her legs were enough to move her forward a few inches, but not much further.

“Getting’ the hang of it, ‘thena,” Wheeljack smiled at her. He plopped himself down next to her, sitting with his legs crossed and pulled toward him, and held his arms out. “Wanna try and come to me?”

Athena flailed her legs under the seat for a bit before she managed to push herself over towards her sire. She stopped just short of hitting his chassis and held her own arms out, chirping excitedly.

Wheeljack laughed and kissed the bitlet’s helm crest. “You’re gettin’ there.”

Then he heard very familiar footfalls, faint at first but slowly increasing in volume.

The door to the workshop opened up and both sire and sparkling looked toward the figure that stepped through. Athena squeaked and the walker chair made a cacophony of noise as she turned around and darted straight for her carrier.

.-.-.

Magnus grunted in a mixture of surprise and slight pain as his daughter rammed into his legs. He looked down and smiled at the large blue optics that stared at him. Then he noticed what had helped propel Athena. He looked up at the white-armored mech seated at the other side of the room. “You did this?”

Wheeljack gave him a bright grin that stirred something more than fondness in his spark. “Yeah, Sunshine said it’d help her get walkin’ a lot faster. Like it?”

Athena was bouncing up and down in the chair, holding her arms up and waggling her digits to show that she wanted to be picked up. He was tired from his patrol shift, but Magnus smiled at the bitlet and bent down to pick her up before he realized that he should leave her in the walker. “I do like it. And I appreciate it. She seems to like it a lot as well.”

The bitlet chirped insistently at him, wriggling in her chair. Magnus resisted the urge to pick her up, sitting down next to the chair and offering his servo to the sparkling. Athena settled down a bit, grabbing her carrier’s servo and inspecting each digit as she always did whenever she got a hold of it.

Magnus looked up at Wheeljack and smiled at him, noting how the other mech’s helm fins twitched with their optical contact. “Thank you.”

Athena chirred at her carrier, then looked at her sire and flicked her helm fins at him. Magnus leaned over and kissed the bitlet on her helm crest, smiling at the surprised and delighted chirp it earned him. He got to his pedes and began to walk out the doorway. He paused, waiting a few moments, then turned around. His daughter stared at him with wide blue optics.

“Are you going to follow me, Athena?”

The bitlet wriggled in the chair and began toddling over to her carrier, chirping the entire way. Her little frame bounced up and down and she smiled up at her carrier as she followed him out of the door.

.-.-.

“Come on Athena.”

_Warble?_

“It’s time for you to go to recharge.”

Athena stuck her glossa out at her carrier and shook her helm. Magnus tilted his helm at her and shook his helm in return. “Don’t attempt to argue with me on this. Sparklings need their recharge, as do their carriers.”

The bitlet twitched her helm fins at her carrier and then looked over at the entrance of the room, which was as far as Magnus let her walk before he decided that he hadn’t had her in his arms enough, and plucked her out of her chair. Magnus looked over at the chair, sitting right in front of the door to his private room. “No. You’ve had enough of the chair for the solar cycle, Athena.”

Athena chirped indignantly at him.

“You will have tomorrow to walk in the chair. Come, time for recharge. Here,” Magnus reached into a small container by the sparkling’s berth that contained a variety of trinkets that Wheeljack had created for her, pulling out a soft toy that he’d been informed was called a “teddy.” “I know you enjoy sleeping with this, Athena. Will you go to sleep now?”

When he gave the toy to the bitlet, she looked at it for a moment before throwing it across the room, chirping as it landed right in the seat of the walker.

Magnus sighed and handed her another one of the soft toys, frowning as she threw it as well. It fell partway across the room, between the berth and the walking chair. He handed her a third, and sighed again when it fell three-quarters of the way across the room, between the second plush and the walking chair.

“I hope you realize that behaving like this will not eliminate the necessity for recharge.”

_Chirp!_

Magnus grumbled under his breath and stepped toward the door, picking up the plush toys that had fallen in the ground as he made his way over to the walker to retrieve the one that she had thrown in there.

He must have been more exhausted than he had realized, because before Magnus knew it, he was stumbling on the very short trek over to the walker. He instinctively shot a servo out to the nearest object to steady himself, and didn’t realize until he heard a cracking noise that it would have been better if he’d let himself fall the entire way.

The blue-armored mech groaned as he looked at what remained of the broken walker gripped in his servo, but was quickly distracted when he heard the sound of Athena crying. He swiftly yet gently let go of the walker and put the two plush toys he’d rescued from the floor back in the bin as he lifted the sparkling from her berth.

Tears flowed out of her optics and she made a springing noise from within her chassis, hiccupping as she cried over the sight of the broken walker. Magnus kissed the bitlet’s helm crest, sorry that he had ever tried to save himself from falling, and made quiet clicking noises at her. He pushed his calming electromagnetic field against her stressed one.

“I apologize, Athena. I will take the chair to your sire so he can fix it and you will be able to utilize it once more.” He stroked her helm fins, prompting her to look at him. “It will be alright.”

The calming voice and field seemed to make Athena understand what the words couldn’t. She sniffed and hiccupped a few more times, but was overall much calmer as she curled into her carrier’s chassis and found grip on his chest armor. Magnus smiled and kissed her helm, beaming internally when she moved her helm and gave him a clumsy kiss to his cheekplate.

On the way out the door, he grabbed the one plush toy he hadn’t retrieved and gave it to Athena to hold. Once he had a steady grip on her in one arm, he used his free servo to grab the walker and hold onto it so he didn’t have to make a double trip.

He entered the common room of the base, hoping he would find Ratchet working at his console, but only coming across Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and the human children gathered around a projector and screen, watching a movie. The children were in sleeping attire, and talking loudly over the dialogue in the movie.

“I hope the film is appropriate for everyone,” Magnus said sternly as he made his way over to the group.

Bumblebee beeped and lifted his doorwings in greeting, chirping at Athena. The femmeling grinned at him and held her plush toy out, chirping back excitedly. The chirps got the children’s attention, as they turned away from the projector screen and shouted “Athena!” in very excited voices.

The femme chirred and tilted her helm fins at them.

Bulkhead was the first to address the concern that Magnus had. “Yeah, it’s a lot better than the last movie they watched, sir. Checked the ratings online.”

“Good. I don’t want a repeat of the last film they watched. Rafael, especially, should not have been watching it.” Magnus gave the youngest of the humans a pointed look, but Raf was too taken by the excitement of Athena being around that he didn’t blanch. “Bulkhead and Bumblebee, I have a favor to ask of you both.”

“Oh, uh,” Bulkhead looked a little apprehensive as he and the yellow-armored scout exchanged looks, “sure. What is it that you need, sir?”

Magnus gestured to the broken walking chair that he held under his arm that wasn’t holding onto his daughter. “I need to take this to Wheeljack for him to fix. Can I trust you both, and the children, to keep Athena entertained for a little while until I can return for her?”

 _Beep!_ Bumblebee beeped excitedly and held his servos out, bouncing up and down where he sat. Magnus kept his smile to himself as he handed his warbling daughter to the yellow mech. Athena papped her servos on Bumblebee’s helm, giggling.

“She’ll be in good servos, sir,” Bulkhead smiled at him before joining in the fun, waggling his digits in front of the sparkling’s faceplates. She reached out for them and chirped indignantly when he pulled them back.

.-.-.

On the nights that Athena wasn’t with him, he stayed up and created things in his workshop. Sure, some of the things he created were for the base at large, or for other bots, but the majority of what he created was for his daughter.

He still ached from the many nights he spent making sure that the railed berth he’d constructed for Athena could withstand the weight of a growing bitlet, and that it was sturdy and couldn’t accidentally tip over or be melted in case of a fire. He also added wheels to it, so it could be wheeled from berthroom to berthroom.

A small ache appeared in his spark. He wished Athena were there again, keeping him company with her curious warbles and bright, inquisitive optics.

He wished for more than that. But having Athena with him was the far more feasible option.

_Knock knock knock._

He knew that knock. Ultra Magnus, carrier of the universe’s most adorable little bitlet.

Wheeljack put his next project down on the large table and walked over to the door, sliding it open and coming faceplate-to-chassis with the blue mech.

“Anythin’ I can help you with?”

It was then that Wheeljack noticed the walker tucked underneath one of Magnus’s arms. He raised an optical ridge and looked up at the bot again, who seemed a little ashamed as he cleared his vocalizer and replied, “I accidentally tripped over the new walker that you constructed for Athena. I’ve left her with the others in the common room, and I was wondering if you would be able to make repairs.”

“Oh. Sure, anythin’ for ‘thena. Here, lemme…,” Wheeljack trailed off as he got a hold of the broken walker and looked it over. The top ring had cracked, as had a few wheels, but it was nothing that a few remedies wouldn’t take care of. He held the walker in both servos and set it down by his work table, kneeling next to it as he set about making repairs.

Out of the corner of his optics, he saw Magnus awkwardly make his way into the room and close the door behind him, leaning against the wall as he watched Wheeljack work on the walker. Wheeljack tilted one of his winglets, a showing that he knew Magnus was watching. “So how’d it get broken like this?” he asked.

“It was my fault,” came the reply. An uncharacteristic shuffle of pedes, and a sigh. “I was attempting to get her to go to recharge. She was being difficult and throwing things that I gave her across the room. When I went to retrieve the soft toys she had thrown, I stumbled and broke the walker in my attempt to steady myself.”

Wheeljack chuckled as he mended the break in the top ring of the walker. “That sounds like her alright. Can never get her to recharge when she’s with me. I’ll take her in an’ out of the berth, an’ when she’s sleepin’ with me, she’ll crawl all over me an’ keep me up. Thought it was just with me, though.”

“No. Rest assured that she is the exact same way with me.”

The white-armored mech snorted. “Was she upset when it broke?”

“Indeed she was. I’m certain she’ll be delighted when the repaired walker is returned to her.”

“Yeah, she seemed to get a kick outta it when I put her in it for the first time. She was a lil’ bit confused at first, but then she got the hang of it.” Wheeljack couldn’t help the smile that came across his faceplates when he thought of the little bitlet. He flipped the frame of the walker over and inspected the broken wheels. Luckily, he’d had the foresight to create a few extra ones in case they stopped functioning. He rummaged around on the work table and found the spare wheels, popping the broken ones out and inserting the new ones.

Setting the walker upright, Wheeljack gave it a slight push, watching as it rolled a few inches away. “There. Fixed it for you, chief.”

He watched as Magnus stepped over and tested the walker himself, rolling it around and putting pressure on the frame to make certain it could hold their daughter’s weight. The blue-armored mech smiled and gave the white-armored bot a grateful smile. “Thank you for the repairs, Wheeljack. They are greatly appreciated.”

Wheeljack made a dismissive motion with his servo. “‘s all good. Anythin’ for ‘thena.” Then, before he could stop himself, he muttered, “‘s all you see me as anyway, just the bot that repairs things.”

Magnus’s helm turned quickly, and Wheeljack withered under the harsh gaze. “What was that?”

.-.-.

He’d heard a part of what Wheeljack had said, but Magnus liked to put other bots in their place and make them repeat what they had uttered in undertone. He had used that manner of discipline eons ago, when he had first been put into command of the Wreckers and there were many muttered insults hurled into the air when he passed by. He stared harshly at Wheeljack, watching as the white-armored mech cringed.

After a few more moments of silence, Magnus reiterated, “Repeat that again, Wheeljack.”

Optics mirroring those of his daughter’s looked at him. “Just said that all I am to you is the bot that repairs things.”

Magnus tilted his helm slightly in confusion, the glare in his optics dissipating as his spark sunk. “Wheeljack, you know perfectly well that you are much more than that. As unbelievable as it may sound coming from your former commanding officer, you are a valued member of the team. You are, also, the sire of our daughter. You are far more than simply the mech that fixes things.”

A snort echoed in the workshop. “Sure as frag don’t feel that way.”

Magnus blinked, and narrowed his optics at the smaller mech. “Do you care to explain your reasoning behind your stance?”

“No, sir. Think you’d just rebuff what I tell you anyway. It’s what you’re best at doin’.”

Something in the blue mech’s spark stirred again, feeling something akin to a mixture of affection and pity. He inhaled and ex-vented, looking down to see that the repaired walker was still between the both of them. He grabbed it and put it aside, watching as it rolled a few inches further than he’d anticipated. “I am not sure what you mean by telling me that I would simply “rebuff” you. What is it that you want to say, Wheeljack?”

Those intensely blue optics, with the beautiful pattern reminiscent of a star, looked at him almost pleadingly before darting to stare at the floor. His audio receptors picked up the sound of the white-armored mech sighing heavily.

“Can’t… can’t deal with this anymore, Mags. Y’know I thought that I could get over it, get over you not wantin’ a relationship with me. But I just, I gotta say this Mags. I love you. I’ve loved you for a long time.”

Magnus continued staring at Wheeljack, chassis rising up and down slowly as the smaller mech continued to stare at a point by his pedes and ramble on, “An’ I only fell more in love with you when you got sparked, had Athena. Primus, I’ll never be able to hate you or even just like you because of that. Bein’ there with you, when you had her, only made me feel more that way towards you. Seein’ you bein’ such a good and lovin’ carrier to her…”

“Wheeljack-”

The other mech finally looked up and met the Wrecker Commander’s optics. “Can I finish, sir?”

Taken aback slightly, Magnus blinked and then nodded in assent.

“Seein’ you bein’ a good carrier to Athena’s only made me love you even more. An’ I wonder what I’d do an’ what it’d be like to have you love me back too, to have you an’ I together with ‘thena as a family. I love you, Mags. I love you.”

The room fell silent as Wheeljack stopped speaking. Magnus only continued to look at the mech as Wheeljack turned away, making a “hmph” noise as he rummaged around on his work table for something. The taller, blue-armored mech kept his optics on the smaller, white-armored bot as he puttered around the workshop room, muttering to himself under his breath. This time, Magnus didn’t order Wheeljack to repeat himself.

All this time. And Wheeljack had felt the exact same way that he had.

Admittedly, his affections for the white mech hadn’t been much in the beginning. They were far too different from one another to get along when he had been instated as the commander of the Wreckers. Absence hadn’t made the spark grow much fonder.

But seeing how Wheeljack had stepped up and taken so seriously the role of being a sire to their daughter had endeared the mech to him. It hadn’t been until very recently that Magnus had realized the extent of what he felt for Wheeljack. It occurred to him… he hadn’t been as grateful toward the other mech as he should have been.

“If you’re not gonna say somethin’, can you just…” Magnus looked up and saw Wheeljack waving a servo toward the door, “leave me alone, or somethin’?”

Magnus momentarily narrowed his optics before he replied with, “I do have something to say, Wheeljack. I am merely wondering how I should parse it, but I believe it may be in both our best interests if I were to simply say it.”

Wheeljack looked back toward him, optics wary, cautious, and a little bit hopeful. Inhaling deeply, Magnus exvented and braced himself for what he was about to say. “I have to say that over this period of time… while I did say previously that I was not interested in pursuing a relationship, I have found that over these past few months on Earth spent with you, as we co-parented and continue to co-parent our daughter, I have grown more than simply fond of you. I enjoy seeing how happy Athena is with you, a likeminded.” Magnus smiled, more to himself than for Wheeljack, and continued, “I am very grateful that you have taken the role of sire so seriously. You are a wonderful creator to Athena, and I admire that you have taken initiative to create what you have for her.”

The white-armored mech stared at him, his own chassis rising up and down.

“What I am trying to say, Wheeljack, is that recently I began entertaining the notion of the both of us pursuing a relationship.” Magnus let those words hang in the air for a moment. “But I wasn’t entirely sure if you would have wanted it as well.”

Wheeljack’s helm fins flicked upwards in a gesture of surprise. He raised his helm, and his optics widened a micrometer that Magnus still managed to pick up.

“You kiddin’? I’d… Mags, I want to. I love you. I love Athena. And I,” the mech trailed off a moment and steeled himself before he continued, “I also don’t want Athena to one day look back and wonder why we were never together. Don’ want her to wonder if she was a mistake when she wasn’.”

“I’m not sure what you mean by-”

“Once Athena learns how sparklin’s are made, she’s gonna wonder why we didn’ stay together. Or why we weren’t together, that she’s got two creators that didn’t…” Wheeljack laughed and looked at the floor. “Not sayin’ this to make you feel bad or anythin’. It’s just somethin’ that I thought about an’ hoped that I wouldn’ have to answer when she’s older.”

The blue-armored mech understood what Wheeljack was getting at. He nodded once, sighing. “That was a concern that I had not thought of. But I see your point, and it is very valid.” Magnus stepped over to Wheeljack and cupped the mech’s helm in a servo, gently tilting his helm to look up at him and have their gazes meet.

It was silent for a few moments, before Ultra Magnus leaned down to Wheeljack’s level and placed his lipplates on the other mech’s.

Wheeljack growled deep in his chassis as he returned the taller mech’s kiss with equal fervor. Magnus moaned and pulled the white-armored bot closer, wrapping his arms around Wheeljack’s back, his digits stroking along the length of the winglets. They twitched and tilted into his touch, eliciting a moan from the smaller bot.

“Primus, yeah,” Wheeljack moaned into the kiss. Magnus smirked against the other mech’s lipplates and tugged Wheeljack over to a corner of the workshop, but was stopped when Wheeljack pulled back.

“C’mere. Here,” the white-armored mech gripped Magnus by the hip armor and led him over to a door that slid open upon approach. The small room on the other side was Wheeljack’s berthroom, which Magnus fondly remembered as the place he dropped Athena off at every other night cycle. He let himself be guided to the other mech’s berth, lying down on his backplates and chuckling as Wheeljack clambered over him, seizing his lipplates as if they were the secret to eternal life.

Scratched, pitted digits came up to caress his faceplates as their kiss deepened. Magnus groaned as he tilted his hips up. Despite the difference in their heights, he was still able to grind his pelvic plating against Wheeljack’s interfacing panel and the apex of the white-armored mech’s thighs. Wheeljack shuddered and pulled back from the kiss, slag-eating grin plastered on his faceplates.

“How do you want this, Mags?” Wheeljack whispered, clinking their helm crests together.

The tone in the other mech’s voice sent a shiver down Magnus’s spinal strut. He suppressed a heated moan and stroked his digits along Wheeljack’s winglets, feeling them twitch. “In me, now,” he hissed.

Wheeljack laughed quietly and kissed Magnus briefly before shifting himself further downwards. “As you wish, chief.”

Magnus watched the other mech as he came closer to his closed interfacing panel, shivering underneath the gentle, barely-there touches of Wheeljack’s servos against his abdominal and pelvic plating. He sighed quietly and shifted himself, parting his legs a little further apart to allot the white-armored bot more space to settle between his thighs.

Wheeljack placed his left servo over the warming interface panel, tapping his index digit on it. “Gonna open up?”

Magnus smirked and opened his panel, watching with rapt optics as the servo lowered, holding back a pleased gasp as little electric sparks shot up his frame when the scratched silver digits met the wet folds of his valve. He bit down on his lower lipplate as Wheeljack rubbed this thumb over the glowing anterior node.

“Did I ever tell ya you’ve got the biggest node I’ve ever seen?”

If Wheeljack had meant it to be a compliment, it rather embarrassed the blue and red mech to hear it. Magnus felt heat rise into his faceplates and he put a servo over his faceplates.

“Ah, did I hit somethin’?”

“No, it was simply… unexpected. I’ve never seen the anterior nodes on other mechs or femmes.”

Wheeljack laughed, the hot vent of breath caressing Magnus’s slick folds. Magnus shifted around again as Wheeljack said, “Well, chief, if it makes you feel any better, I haven’ seen many other nodes around.”

“How many?” Magnus asked before he could stop himself. He winced at the tone of jealousy in his voice.

Wheeljack tilted one of his helm fins and laughed again. “Not more than five. Not a whole lot.”

Magnus felt even more embarrassed at how he had reacted, but it quickly ebbed away when a prying, curious digit stroked down his folds before slowly inching into the opening of his valve. He moaned softly, minutely rolling his hips into the light touches of Wheeljack’s digits. Though he couldn’t see Wheeljack’s face from his position, he knew that the mech was smirking in self-satisfaction.

A second digit probed curiously at the rim of his valve, circling the exterior mesh before joining the other digit in stroking and pumping inside of him. Magnus’s calipers fluttered around the welcome intruders.

“When I said that I wanted you in me,” he quipped, exventing hot air as he gave a short laugh, “I was referring to your spike.”

“I know what you meant,” Wheeljack replied from between his legs. “Just thought it’d be fun to toy with you a bit.”

Whatever it was that Magnus was going to reply with, died on his glossa as something warm and wet swiped over his folds and flicked over his anterior node. The shock surged through his frame, making his hips arch up, but then he felt the weight of servos on each of his thighs, holding him down as lips closed around the exterior of his valve.

Wheeljack swiped his glossa over the rim of the valve once more, flattening it against the thick cluster of nerves that made up the node, before he wriggled it into the warm passage, pumping his two digits alongside his glossa.

Magnus’s self-control went completely out of the window as he gave an obscene moan and wrapped his legs partially around Wheeljack’s shoulder struts and helm, servos shooting to the other mech’s helm as he held Wheeljack down, wanting more of Wheeljack inside of him somehow. Digits, glossa, something that would relieve the ache pooling in his abdomen and give him release.

Glossa swiping over the rim of the valve, he felt Wheeljack’s helm pull back slightly as he pressed his lipplates against the swollen folds and suckled on the node for a brief moment before he pulled back against the hold of the servos. A smirk was on the white-armored mech’s faceplates, his tone dripping with smug self-satisfaction as he asked, “Enjoy that?”

The look that Magnus shot Wheeljack could have killed a scraplet. “Were my reactions not proof enough?”

Wheeljack chuckled and slipped his digits out of Magnus’s valve. Magnus saw Wheeljack slip his own digits into his mouth, sucking off the lubricant that his valve had produced, and suppressed an aroused shiver.

The _click_ of an interfacing panel echoed in the small room, and Magnus caught a very brief glimpse of the smaller mech’s spike before he felt the tip nudge against his wet folds. His spark hammered in its casing, and Magnus’s intakes hitched as Wheeljack sheathed the length of his spike inside of his sopping valve, clenching around it fiercely as if to keep it still and within. It had been far too long since he’d interfaced – since just before Athena’s birth, he remembered.

His optics fluttered and he leaned his helm back against the wall as the other mech rolled his hips, his spike rubbing so wonderfully against all of the charged nodes in his valve.

The slow pace that Wheeljack had set was driving his processor haywire. Groaning, Magnus tilted his helm back against the berth and the wall and wrapped his legs around the smaller mech’s hips, urging him on without spoken or written words. Wheeljack immediately picked up on what Magnus was saying, and grabbed at his hips and drove forward with increasing pace and thrusts.

Magnus’s vocalizer hitched with each thrust in his valve, each slide of Wheeljack’s spike against his valve sensors. He lifted his helm and opened optics that he wasn’t aware he’d shut, looking at the other mech’s faceplates and watching how Wheeljack’s expression slackened as he slid out, then concentrated as he thrust forward.

Reaching beneath them, Magnus used one of his servos to rub at his anterior node, tugging at it lightly. The motions sent fire through his body, shooting to his spark and his processor and every inch of his neural net.

“M-Magnus, gonna…” Wheeljack trailed off and didn’t get to finish his sentence as Magnus felt the gush of warm transfluid surge into his valve. The sensation of the fluids hitting each sensor within, even those located at the very back of his valve, drove Magnus over the precipice as he grabbed onto Wheeljack’s shoulder struts and arched his back, gasping as he rode out the overload that overcame his frame.

Wheeljack’s armor rattled on his body, and he collapsed on top of Magnus as he came down from the interface high, the sounds of his fans working to cool him down. Magnus’s kicked on as well, drowning the room in the noise.

Magnus closed his optics and tilted his helm back onto the berth, sighing heavily as he listened to the cacophony of their frames working to cool them back to a more normal temperature. His spark shook in his casing, his processor reeling from the power and force of the overload.

It had been too long indeed.

He felt light touches on his helm, and opened his optics to see those beautiful blue optics looking back up at him. The other mech stared at him from where he lay across Magnus’s body. Wheeljack’s digits caressed Magnus’s faceplates, his dimmed optics looking at him lovingly.

“Dunno if I’ve ever told you this, but… you’re beautiful, Mags.” A corner of the white-armored mech’s lipplates quirked upwards. “You’ve always been, even when you were gettin’ on my nerves ‘bout rules and regs.”

He felt his spark lift at the compliment. Magnus didn’t smile back, but his optics softened and dimmed as he reached up and twined his digits with the other mech’s. “Thank you.”

A ping to Magnus’s communication link disrupted the post-interface haze. Magnus sat up, gently moving Wheeljack off of him, and answered the call. ::Yes?::

::Sir, uh, the kids are already asleep and Athena’s joinin’ them. Are you gonna come out and get her?::

Magnus looked down at his frame and internally scolded himself for allowing such a mess to happen. He gave Wheeljack a pointed look and gestured at the mess of lubricants and transfluids between his thighs. ::I will be there shortly, Bulkhead::

He cut off the link. “Do you have a wash cloth? I need to pick Athena up.”

Wheeljack flicked his helm fins and hopped off the berth, rummaging around in his subspace and coming away with a cleaning cloth and something that looked like a container of solvent.

“Keep this around ‘cause sometimes Athena likes to upchuck her energon. Here.”

Magnus gratefully grabbed the items and cleaned himself down, making sure once, twice, thrice that he got every trace of his and Wheeljack’s indiscretions off of his frame.

“Hey, Magnus?”

He looked up at Wheeljack with a questioning glance.

The white-armored Wrecker smiled at him again. “I love you. And thank you.”

Magnus, despite himself, smiled back. “I as well. Athena and I will be recharging in my quarters, if you wish to join us after you have cleaned off.”

The look on Wheeljack’s faceplates was the answer he needed as he turned and walked out the main door to the corridor. He compulsively kept checking his frame, making certain that he’d gotten all the traces of interfacing off his frame as he walked into the main room.

The projector was off, the children curled up on recharging sheets, Bumblebee sleeping in a corner and Bulkhead looking like he was ready to join them. The bitlet that the large green mech held in his arms was fast asleep. Bulkhead sleepily realized that Magnus was there, and handed Athena back to him without a word. Not a second passed between him giving Athena back to her carrier and Bulkhead finally going into recharge.

Athena instinctively curled up into her carrier’s chassis, chirping softly as Magnus walked back to his quarters, stroking her backplates.

When he put the sparkling back in her berth and tucked her favorite soft toys around her, he heard the sound of a door opening. He turned to see Wheeljack walking quietly into his quarters, holding the fixed walking chair in his servos. The white-armored mech looked at him and smiled, setting the chair on the floor.

The sight put a broad smile on Magnus’s faceplates.


End file.
